Second to Last Week

This is our second to last week in Volos. It's almost time to go home! The semester has just flown by. Wasn't it just yesterday I was jet lagged in Athens wondering how I was going to get to the hotel? We're finishing up our FINAL PROJECTS. Mine is coming together really, really well. Today we turned in our Global Futures Final, so that is one more item I can check off my To Do list. I have completed my Mediterranean Cultures and Landscapes final even though it's not due for another week. :) All I have left to do is put my documents onto a CD-ROM for our Professor. My computer isn't letting me do that, so I'm going to find another computer to do that on. Our BIG final projects are due this Sunday, and we are presenting them next Wednesday. We will also be presenting them next semester at our home campus in America. The architects are working like maniacs on their designs. I am dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Everyone seems on track. I have started packing already so I can hopefully save some room by planning it out. Yesterday I was talking to my mom about what we're doing for Christmas. Wow. We're planning Christmas.
Kara said today, "I don't believe we're going home." It is hard to believe. It will be nice to go home. I miss home, but this was an experience of my lifetime. It has helped define the adult I am going to be.

Saturday night wedding

Last night while I was walking home past the large Orthodox Church on Ermou Street I noticed that all the stores were closing their doors which didn't normally happen. There was a marriage procession up the street. It was beautiful. I wish I had my camera, but I didn't. The bride wore a long, white dress with a train; and the bridesmaids wore dark green [short] dresses with a very short white fur jacket. I didn't get a look at the bride, but I saw her father as they walked up. All the guests were lined up in front of the church to greet the bridal party. It looked really nice.

Giving thanks

Picture: Before the feast
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner last night at Prof's apartment. A chef prepared traditional American foods including green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. Becci [the Administrator of the Drury Center] made pumpkin pies for us, too. It's just not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. We had a lot of food. Each apartment made something. It was really nice. Three students were traveling, so not all of us were there. We had a couple of our teachers come, too.

Finals and Thanksgiving

We have three weeks left [give or take], and our finals are starting to come up quickly. My first final paper is due on Wednesday. It's about the deciphering of Linear B. Next week we have a couple more final projects due, and on December 2nd the BIG PAPER is due.

This will be only my second Thanksgiving away from home. It will be my first real Thanksgiving away from home. My freshman year I got strep throat and sat in a reclining chair in my dorm watching Friends reruns all day. We are having a big, traditional dinner at the Prof's house on Thursday. It's going to be fun.

Meteora

Picture: Meteora
On Thursday our group took a day trip to Meteora, the second largest monastic society in Greece. We can't go to the biggest because they don't allow women. [Something about carrying 'the sin' or something] It was a horribly icky, rainy day; but we made the best of it. Meteora was once home to over twenty monasteries, but only six are on the World Heritage list. It is called Meteora [or "suspended in air"] because most of the monasteries are built on top of huge rock formations. We had to do some hiking to get to the top. In the rain. We went to Αγ. Στεφανου [St. Stephen's] first. It's the only cloister still working at Meteora. Then we went to the Grand Meteora which functions as a museum. We spent a lot of time there. Then we went St. Nicholas, which is one of the smaller ones. There was a beautiful view of the surrounding area, and we braved the rain to take some pictures. And then we found an open cafe and sat inside and had coffee and cocoa drinks.

Drenched cat

Picture: the Milko I bought. It's actually the GIANT sized one, a full liter. In the background you can see the watercolor I'm working on for a project. :)
Lately, ever since coming back from Barcelona, the weather has been a little... unpredictable. Yesterday we went on a day trip [post about that later], and it rained the entire time we were there. It caused a very different experience than other students who have been there before. So I've been here at the school building all day working on some important papers [the countdown to finals has begun], and it's about seven so I decide to have a little break. I went to Champions [the grocery store near us] and got a Milko [a wonderfully chocolaty milk drink] and a couple other things I needed for the weekend [cheese, bread]. As the cashier scans my first item, the sky falls down. It's a rush of wind and thunder and a torrent of rain. I'm watching it with horror knowing that I have to get back to the school building somehow. Usually it's not a very long walk, a minute or two, but in the rain that minute could stretch into hours. I hate being cold and wet. I don't mind a warm rain, and I know rain is important for our environment. I'm not anti-rain. Water is a rich symbol... but that doesn't mean I have to get drenched because I wanted a Milko. I waited outside the store underneath the overhang for a couple of minutes just to see if the rain stops. It didn't, but while I was waiting a drenched cat came skulking under the overhang from the bakery side. She sat down in the corner and just glared with her fur pasted down to her face by the rain. I didn't have my camera. I wish I did. The look on the cat's face was priceless. Then there was a break in traffic, and I figured it was as good a time as any to brave the rain and cross the street. I got back to the building, and a few minutes later some other students come in looking particularly wet. Will said that he had jumped the bushes in the median like they were hurdles, and he landed in a huge puddle. His entire front was dripping wet. That's why you don't do that.

November 9th

Picture: Juan marveling at the chocolate porcupines. Note the Barcelona hat.

Our free day in Barcelona. :) We found an International Chocolate Fair!! It was GREAT!

I went to the zoo in the afternoon thinking I would get to see Snowflake, the only albino gorilla in captivity. I paid 12 euro to get into the zoo. When I got to the gorilla section there was a nice plaque saying that Snowflake had died.

In 2004.

I was mad.

November Seventh

Picture: Hilary on the roof of Casa Battlo
Wednesday I saw all sorts of architecture stuff that I appreciate because it's pretty. :) If you want more details on the stuff we saw, ask an architect.
We saw Casa Amatller by Cadafalch, Casa Battlo by Gaudi, Casa Mila by Gaudi, Fundacio Juan Miro and la Sagrada Familia.





Picture: me in front of the la Sagrada Familia

Designed by Gaudi, going to be finished around 2030. AMAZING. Really interesting to see a new Catholic cathedral in the process of being built.

November Sixth

Picture: Kara posing outside of the Cathedral with Hilary off to one side taking another picture
We went to Barcelona's Cathedral. Unfortunately it was under renovation, so half the outside was covered in scaffolding. It was very interesting. All the shrines on the side of the main section were covered with railings.







Picture: Me at La Boqueria with an unknown fruit drink
We went to La Boqueria Market which was established in the 1840's. I have never seen so much good looking food for sale in my life! I stayed away from the seafood and meat areas. When I walked by one stand, the lobsters were moving slightly on their ice bucket. It gave me the jibblies. I bought a couple different fruit juices. I love the one I'm holding in the picture, but I don't know what fruit it was made from!



We also went to the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona except it was closed. We watched all the awesome skateboarders outside of it, though. Some guy was filming a documentary. One guy wiped out really hard. He got up ok, though, so it was funny.

We went through Museu Picasso. No Dames of Avignon, though. That's what I wanted to see...

Barcelona!

Picture: La Rambla with Glasgow fans
Once we got to Barcelona it was INCREDIBLE!! We stayed at the Hotel Atlantis which was right by La Rambla Street. We kept seeing people in soccer jerseys. Turns out that there was a HUGE game between Barcelona and Glasgow [funny how things turn out] on Wednesday. So there were a lot of people from Great Britain in the city. We saw a lot of really cool living statues on La Rambla. We were right by the street, so when walking to other places we were often on the street.

What actually happened

The plans given during the last post did not happen the way they were planned. Here's what actually happened.

We did get to Venice's Marco Polo Airport around midnight. There were no flights going out at that time. There was no representative from ClickAir or from Iberia to tell us what we needed to do. No one we talked to had any clue about our situation. The first flight the next morning for Iberia was at 8am, so we decided we would go to the airport at 6am to talk to someone at the counter. The only people around at midnight were security guards. We found a hotel [at 130 euros a night] and slept for a few hours. Then we went back to the airport and got onto a 9am flight for Barcelona.
So we got into our hotel in Barcelona on Tuesday, October 6th around 1pm when we should have been there over twenty four hours before that.

We are currently getting our money back for the hotel, etc. I am highly disappointed in both ClickAir and Iberia and will fly neither of them again. We were stranded in the middle of the night at a point in between our start and our destination with nothing. No word when we would get on a plane, no explanations, no lodgings, no food, no nothing.

stuck

Ok. I'm stuck in the Athens airport. Our flight was scrubbed, and our next flight doesn't leave until 10pm. We've been here since about 9am. It's been a long day and will be a long night. We're flying into Venice and then headed to Barcelona. We get in around 2am. ACK

Out of the country

I will be out of the country [Greece] from November 5th to November 10th. We're headed to Barcelona, one of my mother's favorite cities. It sounds like we'll be seeing a lot of important architecture stuff. Of course, the architects are really excited.
I've been hard at work the past few days on my projects. They are coming along nicely. I have been using my watercolors to paint some scenes from Volos. It's very hard to take the watercolors somewhere and paint there, so I've been taking pictures and painting from them. It's not the same effect, but it's the best I can do right now. If you're good while I'm gone I'll scan in some of my artwork and post it to the blog. I'm happy to travel again, although it means I have to pack again. I had to buy a new suitcase because I lost my duffel shoulder strap. I had to carry the duffel on a forty minute walk from the bus station to my new apartment. I'm not doing that again, so I found a small rolling suitcase for less than twenty euros. It's coffee colored. I like it.
We received our visa extensions, so we're set to get back into the country. :)
Oh, our washer is broken. :( But they're going to get it fixed while we are traveling, so when we come back our washer should be washing again. For now we're using the boys' washer. Since they live next door, it's not a big deal.
See you after Spain!

It's November?!

I can't believe that it's November already. I'm practically in shock.
I'm doing some harsh editing on my main project paper.
On Monday we're leaving to go to Barcelona for a week. We come back next Saturday.
I can't believe it's November.